With prayer and crews, church to be raised for relocation

Bogue Falaya Baptist Church moving to new location

One of the oldest churches in St. Tammany Parish is moving, literally.

With prayer and crews, church to be raised for relocation

Bogue Falaya Baptist Church moving to new location

Updated: 12:00 AM CDT Nov 1, 2012

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FOLSOM, La. —

One of the oldest churches in St. Tammany parish is moving – literally.

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The entire building of the Bogue Falaya Baptist Church, predating the Civil War, is relocating.

While some churches lift their hands in prayer or parishioners raise their voice in song, the church south of Folsom is raising the entire structure in its relocation effort.

Pastor Jake Roudkovski said the he’s never seen anything like this.

“I've been in ministry for the last 20 years. I've never heard of anything like this. Just to be able to right now, some churches you can walk in. This church you can walk under,” he said.

Busting at the seams, the Bogue Falaya Baptist Church congregation has outgrown the building on Highway 1077.

After putting pencil to paper, church leaders decided to pick up and move the church.

“The most fiscal, financially feasible way for us to expand was to just pick up the church to our new property,” Roudkovski said.

Louis Kinchen with Orleans Shoring, the company hired to move the church, said the task will be a huge endeavor, saying the church will likely cover the entire Highway as crews heave the structure to its new location.

For the past few weeks, crews have dug, chocked, beamed, braced and lifted all 400 tons of the church.

With the church lifted off the ground, crews will place wheels below it and roll the house of prayer down Highway 1077 and around the corner to the new digs on Highway 25.

“You get used to it, so it's not that big a deal to us, but to a normal person … You're probably just going to have a lot of people mad about traffic,” Kinchen said.

Crews expect to get started early Thursday morning.

Wires, trees and utilities have been cleared. Drivers should expect slow-downs on Highway 25 in the afternoon.

The church is expected to sit in its new location Thursday night, but the congregation will continue to meet under a tent while the new facility is being expanded, which could take a few months.

Alternate routes for drivers:

• From the north, drivers can take Louisiana 40 east at the first traffic light in Folsom and turn right onto Louisiana 437 (Lee Road) south, which flows into Covington. Motorists also can turn right (west) at the second traffic light in Folsom onto Louisiana 40, and then use Willie Road and Louisiana 1078 (Bennett Bridge Road) to return to Louisiana 25.

• From the south, motorists on Louisiana 25 can turn left (west) at Louisiana 1078 (Bennett Bridge Road) and then travel on Willie Road and Louisiana 40 to reach Folsom.